I saw 2 places selling Campanula latiloba plants and one of them was in the U.K. and the other was digging dog nursery who requires a $40 minimum order. That's funny because I wanted to order a $17 plant from plant delights and they wanted $31 for shipping ( gone! ) . My only alternative was digging dog but they'd still have me forking out money. I found a plan C lol.

"You are still thinking about it so you must really want these plants."

Eh, not really. Saw a write-up about them in a magazine and liked the looks of them, so thought I'd order. Not going to be heartbroken if don't get them, though. Not sure if available locally - I can always keep my eyes open on the annual nursery crawls (? trawls).

They are lovely though. I grew the white from seed and liked it enormously. True, it nearly always fell over but for a wild corner, this is one of the best of the tall herbaceous types...and the foliage always stayed quite neat too. It is easily propagated if you are nippy enough to snag a few of the first shoots (a quick tug and they come away from the crown and root very easily under a cloche.

Ordered a couple of small cacti last month and the shipping came out higher than the plants cost. Generally I won't go over one third, but I really wanted these and it was the only source I could find.

go to your local HIGH END nuresery.. goldner walsh or whatever .. lol .. and what would you pay for a plant of the size you would get in the mail ...

now.. take the price plus shipping and divide by 3 ... and just see if you are in the ballpark ...

one way or another.. you are paying for shipping .. either to the seller.. or to your door ... so though it might be shocking.. when you see it broken out in the bill ... it might not be all that out of line ..

of course.. if you have no previous dealing with this vendor.. you might not know how large the plant is ... that you will get in the mail.. so it might not be a bargain ...

ken

btw ... back pre 2000 .. 55% shipping was the norm ... today.. it seems a bit outrageous ...

I only order on line if I can't find what I want locally. Most times I get shipping free but if I do pay $10 is my limit. The ones who charge outrageous shipping prices are usually small growers who don't have the volume to demand lower shipping prices so it's passed on to the consumer

I just spent 55% of the plant costs on P&P...but I wanted these particular plugs so desperately badly, I would have paid double or even treble...in fact, I am so grateful to have found a source for selinum carvifolia (Cambridge milk parsley...and yep, back on the swallowtail caterpillar obsession again), that I would have gone without food and ignored bills, in order to pay for half a dozen priceless umbellifers.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put things in carts, only to cancel when I see the shipping charges.

The last two were outrageous. 30+ and 40 for the other. No thank you....I can do without.

I don't mind paying shipping when it is in line with the cost of mailing the product. But what gets me is handling charge. Why is there a charge for handling anyway. I never went to a check out at a store and was told my total is $9.99, but you have to pay an additional $3.00 for handling. I never order plants mail order because of the outrageous shipping/handling charges .

For me, I look at a bunch of things, including local potential availability, possible seed availability, the % of the plant cost, and the total cost of the plant and shipping together. And of course how much I covet the plant.

Would I pay 2x = 200% of the plant cost? Likely not, but I might pay 100% of the plant cost if I really wanted it and it was reasonably priced to begin with.

I too would prefer to get it locally, but not a single plant I have ever ordered online has the chance of a snowball in hell of appearing at a source within 100 miles of me. At that, according to the government the cost of driving an auto is over 50 cents per mile traveled so every mile I drive to the nursery and then back adds another dollar to the cost. My closest dealer in any plants is 12 miles away and the only reasonably good one is near 30 miles so I only go there for large orders of more common plants, shrubs, etc.

Yes, parcel postal rates have really gotten out of hand, just received a two pound box that I paid $40.00 shipping on, though it did arrive directly do my door here on my acreage. I feel for the mail order nurseries, they don't set parcel rates and those have increased exponentially with the advent of electronic mail having stolen massives of revenue from snail mail providers. Yes, shipping costs do somewhat curtail my online plant shopping, though not preventing must have purchases.